U.S. Announces Additional Products Exempt From Steel Tariffs

By Agence France-Presse The United States on Aug. 21 announced a list of 178 steel products it will exempt from steep steel import tariffs, which it imposed five months ago. "Today, 178 products were excluded because it was determined that they are not sufficiently available from U.S. producers and that excluding these products would not undermine the effectiveness of the safeguard on steel products," the United States Trade Representative's office said in a statement. It was the seventh and final list this year of products that are to be excluded from the tariffs. U.S. President George W. Bush announced in March the imposition of three-year tariffs of up to 30% on selected steel imports. A total of 727 products have been excluded from the exemptions under a system set up in Washington to give access to steel that is not sufficiently available in the United States. The U.S. authorities extended the deadline for processing exemptions due to the volume of requests that poured in from foreign steel-makers and domestic steel consumers. The exclusions cover a broad range of steel, including plate steel, hot-rolled steel, cold-rolled steel, corrosion-resistant steel, tin mill products and stainless steel. A list of the additional exemptions is available at the Web site of the United States Trade Representative. United States Trade Representative Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2002